Am I Home Yet?
by Earthboy111
Summary: I've written a story about daria's homecoming after her first year at college and nothing seems to be as the way she left it, and she can't understand why she sees this as a bad thing.
1. Chapter 1

The rain fell heavily on the road as headlights flashed by the overly ornate "Welcome to Lawndale" sign on a Saturday night, in May of 2003, the specks of gold in the sign reflecting brightly as each car entered the small suburban town. This day had been long in the making, Daria had not seen her family since thanksgiving, (they had taken a ski trip for Christmas to which she readily backed out of spending her time in her old room reading.) though she knew nothing ever did in "no-wheresville" she wondered had anything changed, not needing to answer herself, she stopped outside of the high school, but she was not giving in to nostalgia, not hardly a new addition had been put on to the old place "most likely a new gym" she thought to herself images of Miss Lee appearing in her mind before starting off again, only to stop a few miles down the road. She raised both eyebrows in surprise, the Pizza parlor was gone replaced by a _"you guessed it a Starbucks" _the words resonating in her mind as she sighed, she knew home would offer her some familiarity, which of course it did, never before had she actually felt a relief pulling into that driveway.

She exited the car and opening her umbrella, with her laptop slung over one shoulder she made her way towards the door, the things from her dorm could wait until the weather wasn't so abysmal. She made a small note in her mind; neither of her parent's cars were in the driveway, though for some strange reason Quinn's was. Daria didn't know which idea put her more ill at ease A: that Quinn and her parents were out sharing "quality time" or B: Quinn decided neither to go out on a date, or throw a party at their parent's absences on a Saturday night. _"I'll soon have my answer" _she supposed as her hand reached for the knob and entered her family home. The lights were mostly dimmed save for what looked like flickering candle light coming from Quinn's room.

Daria took the time to shake off her umbrella and set her laptop case beside the door before venturing up the stairs to investigate and peered into the door which was already ajar. _"eep"_ was all that came from Daria's mouth as she looked in on the strangest thing she's seen in her 19 years of life there was her sister Quinn in a dim room surrounded by candles wearing a long black T-shirt that did nothing to reveal her mid drift a pair of jeans, that did not cling as if for dear life to her lower body, hair now black with tips of pink at the ends only shoulder length, and looking rather unkempt, but besides the attire besides the hair the thing which called forth that exclamation of shock was that as she lay on her bed face in her hands which rested on her elbows she was reading, and not a magazine the book was at least two hundred pages long and she'd taken a fairly decent chunk out of it.

Quinn would look up her eyes wide as she sprung from her bed, she'd thought she'd heard someone come in, and now there was someone at her door, she lunged forward knocking the would be intruder flat onto her back _"Alright who are you and…DARIA!" _She exclaimed. It was an easily enough mistake to make, with the conditions as they were Daria had been wearing her contacts to drive and had yet to revert to her glasses, and her hair now pulled back into a ponytail, might not be enough of a change to confuse most people's sister, but this was a drastic change from the Daria that Quinn had seen on thanksgiving.

_"Nice to see you too"_ Daria would quip as Quinn stood and extended a hand to aid her sister's ascent. She turned flicking on a light switch, now both sisters could see each other perfectly, and both were quite confused, we now know what Quinn looked like but allow me to explain things from her point of view. There stood Daria her eyes unaccessorized, her hair no longer framing her face it was held back by a simple scrunchy, her mouth…it couldn't be not much but there was a slight shimmer to Daria's lips, and it wasn't from the rain, her old green jacket had been replaced now a blood red long sleeve shirt hugged her upper body, her black skirt had also had been forgone to make room for the pair of jeans which unbelievably seemed a little tighter then Quinn's A pair of simple sneakers finishing off her new look. The siblings pointed at one another stunned _"what the hell happened to you?" _They said in unison as Quinn took point shrugging her shoulders lightly _"I just got so tired of having to answer to people about every little aspect of my life, my clothes, my hair, my friends, ughh" _ Quinn said with a slight shiver _"so after the fashion club split up last summer I took a long look in the mirror, but I wasn't doing it to check my appearance, I was deciding who I wanted to be, the next day I repainted my room and started making the changes I wanted." _

Daria listened intently as her sister spoke, finding to her incredible surprise she actually had something to say, Daria had no quip or sarcasm for her. _"So then why didn't I notice this different you at Thanksgiving." _Quinn smiled and rolled her eyes and smiled knowingly at her older sister, _"probably because you did the same thing you do every Thanksgiving, you eat half a turkey leg and lock yourself up in your room, and besides I hadn't made that much headway with my transition yet" _It was true Daria had paid very little attention on thanksgiving, she'd been working on a story time that seemed to sap up all of her free time.

_"Well then…" _Daria stumbled with her next few words not really sure she was saying what she thought she was, "_I'm happy for you Quinn" _Sincere words if not somewhat forced Quinn smiled and put her arms around her. _"Okay who are you and what have you done with Quinn" _Daria had seemed to have found her wit again Quinn opens the door to her room a bit wider and flipped on the lights. Walls where pink and unicorns used to rule, now were home to splotches of red and black, her bed sharing those same dark colors, her long dress mirror was gone; stacks of books littered the room writing supplies all over the floor. _"I decided I wanted to be a little deeper, to not have to pretend I understand some piece of information you give out offhandedly, or only being able to add in only the most asinine thing into a conversation." _Daria's eyes went a little wide, at first it was only the drastic change of her room, but then as the words her sister had spoken played in her mind she came to quite a shocking realization. _"you…you're trying to be more like me aren't you." _Quinn couldn't help but blush slightly as she shrug her shoulders _"what's so bad about that, you're witty, intelligent, creative" "don't forget anti-social, self sabotaging, and a crippling fear of intimacy." _Quinn sighed at her sister's interjection before shaking her head _"so you've got some problems, we all do and it's not like I'm your doppelganger or anything I just find some of you're qualities to be worthy of emulation." _Daria was stunned her sister, Quinn had used words like doppelganger, and emulation correctly in a sentence, she really had been striving to improve on herself, which led her inevitably inward, looking at the progress if any she'd made in her time at college _"thanks Quinn I just need to uhm…go lay down now." _Daria made her way back to her room after receiving a simple nod from Quinn who herself returned to her bed and took her place back up at her book. Daria's head was swimming as she laid in the one thing that seemed familiar in Lawndale anymore, the pale grey padded walls of her old room. _"What the hell is going on around here?"_


	2. Chapter 2

Daria laid in her bed for a long while, mind going over the various changes she'd come across in her short time being home, Quinn's metamorphosis being the most prevalent. It hadn't been that long, and it wasn't like she was overly enthusiastic about the way things had been last year. Her sister was definitely better off, but something just didn't sit well with her about it all.

Her cell phone began to ring, the first time it had happened in six months. Bringing the earpiece to it's name sake the caller's identity was revealed, Jane. Though it wasn't terribly difficult to guess, only five people know the phone's number and two of them were in the house at the moment.

_"So you moved back in yet?" _Jane askedforgoing the usual formalities. _"Well I'm home if that's what you mean, I haven't unpacked because of the rain" _Daria explained still staring up at the ceiling, at least that was familiar, the same water stains and indistinguishable markings.

_"I got in last night, only one thing got wet, a painting of a cat being eaten by a lion… being eaten by the first cat, I think the water damage actually works on it though. Hey listen you should head over tomorrow." _Daria's mind wandered back to the afternoon's of usually inconsequential sarcasm spouted between the two friends.

_"Yeah I will, but I guess pizza is out of the question." _Jane laughed through the phone slightly as she began speaking. _"Yeah five more around town and they'll be half way to meeting their quota." _Jane's attitude hadn't changed much, the two friends had seen very little of each other since the fall, despite their two universities being relatively close, each had been too engrossed in their own projects to socialize, at least that's what they told themselves.

_"Just don't come over before noon, you know how Trent gets when you interrupt his twenty hours of beauty sleep." "Got it" _was all Daria had to say before hanging up. Fatigue was beginning to get the best of her, so she removed her contacts and went to her closet to change into her old night shirt and shorts, pulling her free of the constraining scrunchy she moved under the covers and quickly drifted to sleep.

She opened her eyes early the next morning the blurry world coming into view, she'd left her glasses in the car so for the time being she was restricted to her contacts. After affixing them to her eyes she lazily made her way down the stairs stomach growling loudly by the time she reached the kitchen. Only one person was seated at the table, reading a paper, and it was Quinn, in front of her a half eaten toaster pastry. _"Morning Daria" _She called out and placed the paper down as her sister began to raid the fridge _"Um, morning." _Still trying to shrug off the odd sensation of having her existence so enthusiastically embraced by her younger sibling "_Where are mom and dad?" _She asked as she began to pour herself a bowl of cereal. _"Oh they always sleep in on weekends, their therapist said it would be good for them." _Their parent's had seen therapists before but nothing they said ever seemed to stick. "_That's never stopped them before" _Quinn smirked a little looking over at her sister.

"_You're really the one to blame, after you left, mom started getting empty nest syndrome, she said she wanted to be closer to her family while they're still within reach. She only works fifty five hours a week now and we see her a lot more." _Daria listened and chewed lazily at her cereal as she did so. "_You have my sincere apologizes for that." _She saidfinally getting over the shock of "new Quinn" "_I'd rather have cash" _both siblings smirked after that, Quinn returning to her paper and Daria to her food.

Right as each had finished their individual morning activities two sets of footsteps could be heard making their way down the stairs.

Still in their pajamas Helen and Jake came into view, each with hair mussed from sleep and yawning. "_Good morning girls." _Helen offered, Quinn waving her hand from behind the newspaper, as Daria turned and gave a nod before turning back to the half eaten, entirely mushy ceral. "_Welcome home kiddo." _ Jake said as he took up his usual spot at the table. Quinn instinctively handed him the business section, and the comics, the former of which was overlooked.

"_We saw you're car when we got in Daria, but you were already asleep by then." _"_Uhm thanks." _Daria, again confused shook her head, the last time she'd seen her mother in anything but a business suit was that whole thing with her and tom's six month anniversary, and never at eleven o'clock in the morning. _"Do you need any help unloading your car kiddo?" _Jake inquired after he'd passed over his favorite strips.

_"No thanks, there's nothing really heavy, just some clothes and stuff I didn't want to leave at the dorm." _Helen took up a seat at the table after pouring herself a glass of juice, the once over worked coffee machine ignored. _"So how was school dear?" _Helen asked pouring herself some cereal now. _"Busy, they actually expect you to try. Don't get me wrong I like the challenge but it's harder then I thought it would be." _

_"What was that? You just offered up personal information to your mother of all people. Oh here we go with this again." _Daria played back and forth in her head, not hearing her mother's supportive response. _"Well…I should be going I'm suppose to meet up with Jane." _She was escaping her family again, though for much different reasons, in the past it had been about wanting to find more meaningful conversation, now she was hoping to avoid it with these people who seemingly replaced her family. She stood from the table, and exchanged goodbyes. Once out the door, worry began to overwhelm her, images of a blonde busty Jane and an enterprising Trent running through her mind after the dramatic shift she'd seen in her family.


End file.
